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Jennifer Moss is a journalist, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and co-founder of the Work Better Institute. Her book The Burnout Epidemic was among Thinkers50’s 10 Best New Management Books for 2022. What’s the big idea? Leaders don’t need to take a ton of time overhauling company culture to create workplaces where employees want to spend their time. Simple shifts and incremental changes can foster community, fuel purpose, boost productivity, and deliver meaning to every team member. Jobs that employees actually like are the ultimate capitalist business strategy. Below, Jennifer shares eight key insights from her new book, Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants. Listen to the audio version—read by Jennifer herself—in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Hope. We can’t blame growing detachment from work on one thing. A behavioral mindset shift has happened in response to polycrisis, meaning multiple crises that collided to make each individual crisis worse. The pandemic, climate disasters, accelerated AI adoption, political and economic instability, and war have changed our collective psychology and priorities. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly seven out of ten people feel overwhelmed by the number of crises in the world, with climate anxiety topping the list. This is why we are asking ourselves big existential questions: Why am I here? What is the point? Is this worth my time? Research finds that when facing the finitude of life, you start mentally reorganizing your priorities. If work feels like a grind, our subconscious brain sees it as a threat. We will have less patience for what we see as wasting precious time. If we want a thriving work culture, leaders need to burn past playbooks. The strategies we used to rely on for motivation, engagement, productivity, and retention are no longer effective. People don’t just want better jobs—they want better lives. “The strategies we used to rely on for motivation, engagement, productivity, and retention are no longer effective.” We are in the middle of a global hope crisis. The 4th Annual Mental State of the World Report reveals that global mental well-being has remained at a post-pandemic low, with 41 percent of adults experiencing significant worry, and one in three attributing declining mental health to work. Yale researchers have found that feelings of powerlessness against complex environmental issues contribute to despair and anxiety in workers. Without hope, organizations stagnate and people lose the ability to imagine their role in a better future. Some say hope isn’t a strategy, but I interviewed military leaders who told me that hope is the only strategy in their world. They shared that hope develops resilience. It gives people the courage to be steadfast in their goals despite extreme adversity, helps them thrive in uncertain environments, and strengthens team cohesion. Hope activates the brain’s problem-solving regions, making employees more effective under pressure. Leaders can build an evidenced-based hope strategy that increases optimism and moderates uncertainty. 2. Purpose. The workforce is rejecting meaningless work. 63 percent of employees say they don’t feel their jobs contribute to something meaningful, and over 40 percent are considering switching jobs—or even careers—to find more purpose in their work. Meanwhile, employees who feel their work aligns with their values are three times more likely to stay, even in high-pressure environments. Purpose is the ultimate retention tool. I spoke with Adam Grant, world-renowned psychologist and bestselling author, who has a deep understanding of the importance of purpose-driven work. He advised that we stop worrying so much about getting people aligned with the company’s mission statement. Instead, we should attach individuals’ values and goals to their job’s daily tasks to help them see how their effort counts for the bigger picture. With interviews and insights from companies doing it right, the examples in my book demonstrate novel ways to connect meaning and purpose to work. 3. Community. Work feels like going to school without art, gym, or recess. We are not having fun. We have stopped focusing on building friendships because we are so time-starved. But loneliness is a real threat to mental health, and it negatively impacts business outcomes like productivity and retention. Leaders need to rebuild relational and social energy at work. We need friendships to make the workday feel energizing and joyful. Employees with strong social connections at work are 50 percent more productive and three times more likely to stay with their company. It’s easy to blame remote and hybrid work as the culprit for lack of cohesion, but that is a myth. Community comes from re-establishing rituals and making them fit new work modes. Just putting people in a physical space together is not the answer. I suggest rethinking building community not as a question of where, but more so as a matter of when, how, and with whom. 4. Compassion. Empathy in leadership requires active listening. Compassion is actioning what was heard. In the age of rapid technology adoption, fear of obsolescence is at an all-time high. 78 percent of workers are anxious about losing their jobs to automation. Leaders must lead with compassion to address these fears. “78 percent of workers are anxious about losing their jobs to automation.” Compassionate leadership is kind and strategic. It builds psychological safety, allowing employees to adapt to change and embrace innovation. Compassion is the skill that leaders require if they want to calm anxiety and create teams that trust the future. In the book and my recent LinkedIn course—“From AI Anxiety to Action: A Leader’s Guide to AI Readiness”—I offer tips for leaders to meet fear and uncertainty with open conversations about AI, validating fear of the unknown, sharing the vision, and showing employees how AI will support their roles. 5. Freedom. Flexibility has become a right, not a perk. Data shows that 87 percent of employees want flexible work options, yet there has been a growing divide between what employees and leaders define as flexibility. A return-to-office mandate may seem like a completely fair request from an employer’s perspective, but employees see it as a clawing back of their fundamental right to freedom. Interviews with economists like Nicholas Bloom and Mark Ma offer interesting data on how companies thrive with more flexibility and what happens when that goes away. There are ways to rethink the office and make it a place where people choose to come. 6. Openness. Generational divides are massive. The American Psychological Association says that ageism is the last socially acceptable prejudice, especially with the rise of what researchers are calling youngism, which is anger and criticism toward younger cohorts. But on the other end of the spectrum, Boomers have told me, “I don’t see how I fit into this current workforce,” and it’s why they’re retiring in mass and earlier than our labor force can afford. We need to do an audit of the language we use at work. Are we rolling our eyes as we speak about the other generation? Do we laugh at headlines that read, “Boomers Can’t Even Google” or “Millennials Could Afford a Home if They Stop Eating Avocado Toast”? Are we using terms like lazy, entitled, or past their prime? If so, this needs to stop. Cross-generational collaboration can unlock innovation, creativity, and mutual respect. We need a nuanced approach to supporting each generation, such as life stage benefits that recognize different needs at various ages. Different generations have surprisingly vast similarities as well as unique, distinctive work needs. 7. Belonging. Diversity and inclusion efforts have become a hot-button topic. I add an A for accessibility at the end of DEI, making it DEIA. I find it more helpful to think of DEIA as a belonging strategy. Part of why these programs have been so openly attacked is that they haven’t performed well. These programs have also created a lot of othering, putting people on opposite sides of the fence. “I find it more helpful to think of DEIA as a belonging strategy.” Completely eradicating DEIA is not the answer. It focuses on diversity as a core component of a good culture, and it is also the right move for capitalists. It would be catastrophic to lose diverse talent because data shows they exponentially improve business outcomes. I suggest we go back to the drawing board on our DEIA efforts. Belonging is about creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, and celebrated. Belonging must be systemic, not situational, because employees who feel they belong are 167 percent more likely to recommend their workplace to others, amplifying recruitment and retention. 8. Recognition. Work isn’t working for women. In the U.S., we have the narrowest executive pipeline for women. Globally, we saw a decrease of females in the C-suite for the first time in over two decades. That representation is already marginal, with only 11 percent holding these positions. Keeping women in these roles is critical. We have to stop talking about retaining and promoting women as some sort of benevolent strategy that is easy to scrap when cost-cutting. Instead, we need to look at this as a business strategy. Women in leadership are good for business. A recognition strategy by leaders means recognizing people’s worth regardless of demographic data. Research by O.C. Tanner indicates that employees are 18 times more likely to produce great work if they are recognized for the value they contribute. I spoke with scientists like Nobel prize-winning economist Claudia Golden, experts like Rachel Thomas from LeanIn.org, and academics like Anita Williams Woolley from Carnegie Mellon to dissect why work is holding women back and what leaders need to do to fix it. Despite the heaviness we may feel about work, it is not impossible to turn things around. Simple strategies and tactics can cause incremental changes that build something better. Leaders have a chance to build cultures that inspire, connect, and bring out the best in people. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. View the full article

Soon, all businesses will be able to use Meta’s AI to power live, 24/7 customer service that can interact with customers on behalf of businesses on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Meta announced advancements in business AI—including the customer service AI agent that will make purchases and can respond to voice prompts from a user—at a conference Tuesday morning. “We are at an amazing and historic moment,” said Clara Shih, the VP of Business AI at Meta. “We are on the cusp of AI being in the hands of every consumer and every business.” Over 600 million conversations between a person and a business occur in a day on all of Meta’s social platforms. With its new pilot program, Meta hopes to utilize its Llama AI model to help entrepreneurs and small business owners scale their businesses. As soon as today, Meta users may begin to see business AI featured on ads from brands. Users can ask questions live on the ad page, and the AI agent will answer using data from the business’s Meta footprint (analyzing previous posts and customer service messages). Business owners can also input their own data sources. Businesses can design these agents, which can operate both straight off of ads and also through DMs or Messenger, at no cost right now as the pilot program kicks off. Meta is currently working on specifics for pricing in the future. Business owners can also delegate which tasks they want the AI agent to handle, and which tasks they want the AI to hand off to a live customer service representative. Tasks that the business AI can tackle include managing returns and exchanges, providing product recommendations, handling purchases, and similar services. Shih said that providing these tools to all businesses, regardless of size, is “democratizing access” to powerful technology, which mainly large businesses have previously been able to implement. “Fortune 500 companies have huge IT departments and can afford to piece together everything to make AI work . . . they’re fine tuning their models,” Shih said. “But if you’re a small business or even if you’re a medium-sized business, you don’t even know what fine tuning means. You shouldn’t have to.” These upcoming AI agents are different from the typical pre-programmed chatbots that users may encounter: The text sounds more natural, they are embedded into Meta’s social media services, and they are often easier to set up. In a January earnings call, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he expects 2025 to “be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant.” View the full article

iPhone maker has filed a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over demand to access encrypted dataView the full article

Lenovo has introduced a new lineup of AI-powered Yoga and IdeaPad laptops at MWC 2025, along with software advancements and innovative concept designs aimed at enhancing creativity and productivity. The company’s latest AI-driven devices include the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, the IdeaPad Slim 3x, and the Yoga Solar PC Concept, which leverages renewable energy to power a laptop. “As we push the limits of AI innovation higher than ever, it is important to remember that delivering access to AI for all is equally a core tenet of Lenovo’s philosophy,” said Jun Ouyang, Lenovo’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Segment, Intelligent Devices Group. “With the announcement of innovations like the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, the IdeaPad Slim 3x, and the Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept, Lenovo has delivered a suite of new devices and proofs of concept that empower end users to let their creativity shine, their ‘process’ unbounded by the processing of their PC thanks to AI-powered innovation.” Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept: Harnessing Solar Power for Computing One of Lenovo’s unveilings at MWC 2025 is the Yoga Solar PC Concept, which features a built-in solar panel with a 24% energy conversion rate. The device utilizes ‘Back Contact Cell’ technology to maximize solar absorption and employs a Dynamic Solar Tracking system to adjust charging settings for optimal energy efficiency. According to Lenovo, the solar panel can generate enough power in 20 minutes of direct sunlight to provide one hour of video playback. At just 15mm thin and weighing 1.22kg, the Yoga Solar PC Concept is the world’s first ultraslim solar-powered PC, reflecting Lenovo’s vision of integrating renewable energy into personal computing. New Yoga AI Laptops with Aura Edition Enhancements Lenovo’s Yoga lineup expands with two new Aura Edition devices, developed in collaboration with Intel. The Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition (16”, 10) and the Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition (14”, 10) feature Smart Modes for adaptive performance, Smart Share for cross-device content sharing, and Smart Care for AI-driven support and troubleshooting. The Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition is designed for creators, featuring an Intel Core Ultra processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, and a 3.2K PureSight Pro tandem OLED display with 1600 nits of peak brightness. Lenovo X Power machine learning technology optimizes power consumption and thermal management, ensuring high performance while keeping the device cool and quiet. For portability-focused users, the Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition features Intel Core Ultra 9 processors, 32GB RAM, and a 14.5” 3K OLED PureSight Pro display. The device balances AI-enhanced performance with portability and long battery life. IdeaPad Slim 3x: AI-Powered Productivity for All The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x (15”, 10) offers AI capabilities and future-proof storage expansion in a budget-friendly device. Featuring a Snapdragon X processor with a 45 TOPS NPU, the laptop provides AI-powered productivity, extended battery life, and a durable metal design tested to MIL-STD-810H standards. The laptop supports Copilot+ AI experiences and allows for SSD storage expansion, making it a flexible and long-lasting productivity tool. Innovative Proofs of Concept: AI and Sustainability Beyond commercial products, Lenovo showcased multiple proof-of-concept (POC) designs at MWC 2025: Solar Power Kit for Yoga: A detachable solar panel using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) to optimize energy conversion, enabling mobile solar charging. AI Display with NPU Inside: A monitor featuring a discrete NPU, allowing non-AI PCs to leverage AI-powered tasks such as local Large Language Models (LLMs) and intelligent content recognition. Lenovo AI Stick: A USB-C-powered NPU device that enables non-NPU PCs to run AI-enhanced applications, including graphics acceleration and AI-driven search. Expanding AI-Powered Connectivity Lenovo and Motorola also announced AI enhancements to Smart Connect, an ecosystem integration tool. The update includes natural language search, AI-powered file retrieval, and voice-activated commands for seamless multi-device management across Lenovo and Motorola devices. Image: Lenovo This article, "Lenovo Unveils AI-Powered Innovations at MWC 2025" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Lenovo has introduced a new lineup of AI-powered Yoga and IdeaPad laptops at MWC 2025, along with software advancements and innovative concept designs aimed at enhancing creativity and productivity. The company’s latest AI-driven devices include the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, the IdeaPad Slim 3x, and the Yoga Solar PC Concept, which leverages renewable energy to power a laptop. “As we push the limits of AI innovation higher than ever, it is important to remember that delivering access to AI for all is equally a core tenet of Lenovo’s philosophy,” said Jun Ouyang, Lenovo’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Segment, Intelligent Devices Group. “With the announcement of innovations like the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, the IdeaPad Slim 3x, and the Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept, Lenovo has delivered a suite of new devices and proofs of concept that empower end users to let their creativity shine, their ‘process’ unbounded by the processing of their PC thanks to AI-powered innovation.” Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept: Harnessing Solar Power for Computing One of Lenovo’s unveilings at MWC 2025 is the Yoga Solar PC Concept, which features a built-in solar panel with a 24% energy conversion rate. The device utilizes ‘Back Contact Cell’ technology to maximize solar absorption and employs a Dynamic Solar Tracking system to adjust charging settings for optimal energy efficiency. According to Lenovo, the solar panel can generate enough power in 20 minutes of direct sunlight to provide one hour of video playback. At just 15mm thin and weighing 1.22kg, the Yoga Solar PC Concept is the world’s first ultraslim solar-powered PC, reflecting Lenovo’s vision of integrating renewable energy into personal computing. New Yoga AI Laptops with Aura Edition Enhancements Lenovo’s Yoga lineup expands with two new Aura Edition devices, developed in collaboration with Intel. The Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition (16”, 10) and the Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition (14”, 10) feature Smart Modes for adaptive performance, Smart Share for cross-device content sharing, and Smart Care for AI-driven support and troubleshooting. The Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition is designed for creators, featuring an Intel Core Ultra processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, and a 3.2K PureSight Pro tandem OLED display with 1600 nits of peak brightness. Lenovo X Power machine learning technology optimizes power consumption and thermal management, ensuring high performance while keeping the device cool and quiet. For portability-focused users, the Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition features Intel Core Ultra 9 processors, 32GB RAM, and a 14.5” 3K OLED PureSight Pro display. The device balances AI-enhanced performance with portability and long battery life. IdeaPad Slim 3x: AI-Powered Productivity for All The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x (15”, 10) offers AI capabilities and future-proof storage expansion in a budget-friendly device. Featuring a Snapdragon X processor with a 45 TOPS NPU, the laptop provides AI-powered productivity, extended battery life, and a durable metal design tested to MIL-STD-810H standards. The laptop supports Copilot+ AI experiences and allows for SSD storage expansion, making it a flexible and long-lasting productivity tool. Innovative Proofs of Concept: AI and Sustainability Beyond commercial products, Lenovo showcased multiple proof-of-concept (POC) designs at MWC 2025: Solar Power Kit for Yoga: A detachable solar panel using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) to optimize energy conversion, enabling mobile solar charging. AI Display with NPU Inside: A monitor featuring a discrete NPU, allowing non-AI PCs to leverage AI-powered tasks such as local Large Language Models (LLMs) and intelligent content recognition. Lenovo AI Stick: A USB-C-powered NPU device that enables non-NPU PCs to run AI-enhanced applications, including graphics acceleration and AI-driven search. Expanding AI-Powered Connectivity Lenovo and Motorola also announced AI enhancements to Smart Connect, an ecosystem integration tool. The update includes natural language search, AI-powered file retrieval, and voice-activated commands for seamless multi-device management across Lenovo and Motorola devices. Image: Lenovo This article, "Lenovo Unveils AI-Powered Innovations at MWC 2025" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

With iOS 19 expected to be unveiled in June 2025 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), rumors about its features have been coming in fast. Although none of these rumors can be confirmed at the moment, they still give us a good idea about what Apple might be considering behind the scenes. Since AI is the flavor of the month, Apple Intelligence improvements are expected for iOS 19, but the camera app might also be getting some attention. Here's everything that's been leaked so far. The merging of Siri and Apple IntelligenceAccording to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple plans to merge Siri with Apple Intelligence sometime during the iOS 19 patch cycle. Yes, the assistant is currently listed as being part of Apple Intelligence, but behind the scenes, it's supposedly got a new LLM in the works that would unify its currently split architecture and allow it to more frequently handle complex requests. As of now, its AI features are much more limited, and most of Siri doesn't use AI at all. Gurman says he expects the merger to be completed by spring of 2026 with the launch of iOS 19.4. His report states that, originally, Apple's plan was to launch a more conversational Siri in the same update, but that's been delayed and is not expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2025. Gurman also indicates that because Apple has not yet completed last year's Apple Intelligence feature rollout, any as yet unannounced features shouldn't be expected for a while. A Camera app redesignAbout a month ago, YouTuber FrontPageTech revealed a leaked redesign of the iPhone's Camera app. He claimed to have seen a video of the rumored redesign and recreated it for a video. The render primarily focuses on the control system. Instead of swiping left or right to switch between camera modes, this leak indicates that we may see just two options when we open the app—photos and videos. Swiping switches between them, while tapping reveals more options such as panorama or spatial videos. You can also see a slightly larger viewfinder in the render, but all of this should be taken with a pinch of salt. Even if the sources are credible and the information accurate (other leakers have doubted FrontPageTech before), a lot can change between now and release. Features get shifted around all the time during development, and you can expect some of that with iOS 19 as well. No major UI changesThe FrontPageTech leak also suggests that Apple won't be making other major UI changes in iOS 19. With iOS 18's development not yet complete despite WWDC 2025 being right around the corner, I do have to agree that looks unlikely that big UI changes would follow so soon. Your iPhone will (probably) run iOS 19With no major UI redesign expected, there's no reason for Apple to axe more phones from the iOS 19 update lineup. Citing a source within Apple, French website iPhoneSoft.fr reports that any phone that runs iOS 18 should be compatible with iOS 19 as well. However, the iPad 7 will supposedly not be so lucky, as the website says it will not be included in the iPadOS 19 update. View the full article

The world’s biggest fast-food chain by locations isn’t Starbucks, KFC, or even McDonald’s. It’s Mixue Ice Cream and Tea. The Chinese quick service restaurant chain currently has about 45,000 storefronts across Asia and Australia, according to the research firm Technomic. That’s about 2,000 more than McDonald’s’ global store count and 5,000 more than Starbucks’s. But the boba tea purveyor really picked up broad attention when it debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday—and raised an IPO of $400 million. Shares surged by around 43% before by the end of the day, bringing the company’s total valuation to $10 billion. (Storefronts aside, McDonald’s’s market cap is over 20 times that size at almost $223 billion, and Starbucks’s market cap is over 10 times at $129 billion.) Mixue was founded almost three decades ago in 1997. But for many Americans, its massive stock market debut might be the first they’re hearing of the company. Here’s what to know about the beloved chain. What’s on the menu? As the name suggests, Mixue specializes in ice cream and bubble tea, offering a curated selection of sundaes, ice cream cones, smoothies, milk tea, and fruit tea. Popular options include treats like the super boba sundae (vanilla ice cream, sweet caramel or brown sugar syrup, and boba topping), brown sugar bubble tea, and lemon black tea. Why is Mixue so popular, and what sets it apart from U.S. chains? The main driver of Mixue’s popularity is its competitively low prices. Drinks and ice cream typically range between six and 10 Chinese yuan, which converts to around 83¢ and $1.40, respectively. Even in China’s highly saturated bubble tea market, those kinds of numbers stand out. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ernan Cui, a Beijing-based analyst for research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, noted that Mixue’s low prices have helped attract customers during an economic downturn: “People are chasing more cost-efficient products,” she said. Another key element of Mixue’s success is its expansion strategy. Several analysts have noted that Mixues tend to be relatively small by square footage but located in areas of high foot traffic, like near a university campus or squeezed between other popular shops. As the chain grows, this helps give the company a sense of ubiquity and build brand trust among repeated customers. Both Starbucks and McDonald’s have tried their hands at incorporating a more trendy menu that somewhat reflects Mixue’s strategy. Starbucks launched boba offerings in the summer of 2024. McDonald’s launched spin-off snack and bev concept store CosMc’s in December 2023. But aside from featuring significantly lower prices than either Starbucks or CosMc’s (a grande Starbucks boba cost around $7, while most of CosMc’s beverages land around the $5 range), Mixue stands out due to the relative brevity of its menu. Despite continuously expanding its locations, the company has kept its selection limited to the beverage and ice cream space, steering clear of any actual food for the time being. What about the branding and mascot? Mixue has gotten its branding down to a science. It centers around three main elements: sound, color, and character. To start, the chain has found a way to live rent-free in the minds of its regulars by blasting its signature jingle on a loop in many of its stores. The earworm is set to the tune of “Oh! Susannah” with lyrics that translate to, “I love you. You love me. Mixue Ice Cream and Tea.” While this strategy has created a sort of Pavlovian effect in customers, it’s unsurprisingly less pleasant for workers. “​​I worked in Mixue for two months and this song is killing me,” one former employee wrote under a lyric video of the tune. “If I hear this song one more time I’m going to die, this song is haunting me everywhere,” another commenter wrote. The Mixue branding stands out in storefronts and on socials with its simple, bright red-and-white color palette and bubbly font. Perhaps most recognizable, though, is the brand’s mascot: A somewhat confounding snowman-slash-superhero figure named Snow King. He’s pleasantly round, wears a red cape, and holds an ice cream cone on a stick like a scepter. Both Snow King and the brand jingle debuted around 2018, and the mascot has since become integral to the brand’s image and social media channels. Across Mixue’s various local accounts, Snow King can be seen in a mascot suit interacting with members of the public and participating in various trends—sort of like the Duolingo bird, but for bubble tea. View the full article

Excess cash flow will pay timely interest and protect against realized losses in the rated certificates before being paid out to the class X notes. View the full article

Chancellor says growth and inflation will be hit by fallout from global friction View the full article

The war in Gaza has come with an awful cost. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, and thousands more are missing. And while a temporary ceasefire has allowed for increased aid delivery, easing the plight of those facing disease and hunger, experts predict malnutrition and health issues to persist for months or even years. Much of the territory’s infrastructure—its schools, hospitals and homes—has been damaged or destroyed. And yet, the tremendous human and societal loss has been augmented by a lesser reported but potentially catastrophic, consequence: environmental devastation. In June 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme conducted an environmental impact assessment to evaluate the damage resulting from Israeli military actions in Gaza. It found “unprecedented levels of destruction” from the intensive bombing campaign, along with the complete collapse of water and solid waste systems, and widespread contamination of the soil, water and air. And that was before another six months of bombing caused further damage to Gaza. As a scholar of environmental justice, I have thought carefully about the impact that a lack of clean water, access to sanitation facilities, and the absence of basic infrastructure can have on a community, particularly vulnerable and marginalized populations. The current pause in fighting is providing respite for the 2.2 million people in Gaza who have endured more than a year of war. It also provides an opportunity to evaluate the environmental damage to the densely populated enclave in three crucial areas: the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, or WASH; air quality; and waste management. Here is what we know so far: WASH sector According to an interim damage assessment released by the World Bank, U.N. and E.U. in March 2024, an estimated US$502.7 million of damage was inflicted on the WASH sector in Gaza in the initial months of bombing, including damage to approximately 57% of the water infrastructure. The United Nations reported that water desalination plants in Gaza, 162 water wells and two of the three water connections with Israel’s national water provider had been severely damaged. As a result, the amount of available water in Gaza was at that point reduced to roughly 2-8 liters per person per day—below the World Health Organization emergency daily minimum of 15 liters and far below its standard recommendation of 50-100 liters per day. In November 2024, meanwhile, the charity Oxfam reported that all five wastewater treatment plants in Gaza had been forced to shut down, along with the majority of its 65 wastewater pumping stations. This resulted in ongoing discharges of raw, untreated sewage into the environment. As of June 2024, an estimated 15.8 million gallons of wastewater has been discharged into the environment in and around Gaza, according to the U.N. environmental report. Meanwhile, sanitation facilities for Palestinians in Gaza are practically nonexistent. Reporting from U.N. Women states that people in Gaza routinely walk long distances and then wait for hours just to use a toilet, and due to the lack of water, these toilets cannot be flushed or cleaned. Smoke and clouds of dust rise after an Israeli attack in Gaza City on Jan. 5, 2025. [Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu/Getty Images] Air quality The air quality in Gaza has been drastically impacted by this war. NASA satellite imagery from the first few months of the war found that approximately 165 fires were recorded in Gaza from October 2023 to January 2024. With a shortage of electricity, residents have been forced to burn various materials, including plastics and household waste, for cooking and heating. And this has contributed to a dangerous decline in air quality. Meanwhile, large amounts of dust, debris and chemical releases have been produced from explosions and the destruction of infrastructure, leading to significant air pollution. In February 2024, the U.N. Mine Action Service estimated that, in the first few months of the war alone, more than 25,000 tons of explosives had been used, equivalent to “two nuclear bombs.” Waste management In the first six months of bombardment, more than 39 million tons of debris were generated, much of it likely to contain harmful contaminants, including asbestos, residue from explosives and toxic medical waste. Human remains are also mixed in with this debris, with estimates that over 10,000 bodies remain under the rubble. Moreover, the three main landfills in the Gaza Strip have been closed and are unable to receive waste or conflict-related debris. Substantial damage has been done to five out of six solid waste management facilities, and solid waste continues to accumulate at camps and shelters, with an estimate of 1,100 to 1,200 tons being generated daily. The charge of ‘ecocide’ With such environmental destruction, claims of “ecocide” have been made against the Israeli government by international rights groups. Although not presently incorporated into the framework of international law, there have been recent efforts for ecocide to be added as a crime under the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. Indeed, a panel of experts in 2021 proposed a working definition of ecocide as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment caused by those acts.” To date, 15 countries have criminalized ecocide, and Ukraine is investigating Russia for ecocide for its destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023. Various organizations, including the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the University of California Global Health Institute and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, have stated that the level of environmental devastation in Gaza reaches the proposed legal definition of “ecocide.” Although the Israeli government has not responded to these accusations, it has consistently stated that it has a right to defend itself and that it seeks to protect civilians as it conducts its military operations. Health impacts of environmental harm Regardless of whether the charge of ecocide applies to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the environmental impact, the spread of disease, and other harmful health impairments will be felt for years to come. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported an increase in hepatitis A in the enclave, from 85 cases before the current war to 107,000 cases in October 2024. The WHO has reported 500,000 cases of diarrhea and 100,000 cases of lice and scabies, along with the reemergence of polio. The lack of adequate WASH facilities has also disproportionately affected women and girls by interfering with basic menstrual hygiene, harming their mental and physical health. Meanwhile, the increased presence of dangerous air pollutants has led to increases in respiratory issues, including nearly 1 million acute respiratory illnesses. Presently, the most common respiratory ailments in Gaza are asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, pneumonia, and lung cancer. Next steps As a licensed environmental engineer, I have never seen the scale of environmental destruction that has occurred in Gaza. While the situation is unprecedented, there are concrete steps that the international community can take to help Gaza’s environment recover. The three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect on Jan. 19, 2025, is a promising first step. This agreement has allowed some Israeli hostages to be released and Palestinian detainees to return to their homes. It also allows for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza to deal with the current food crisis and health emergency. Nevertheless, there are significant challenges ahead for the people of Gaza. First, the ceasefire agreement will need to hold—and already there are signs of difficulty in implementing the agreement in full. Should fighting resume, that will close or delay the opportunity for engineers and surveyors to perform detailed, comprehensive field assessments. Meanwhile, the need for a post-conflict plan for Gaza has never been starker. Recovering from Gaza’s environmental devastation will require Israel and neighboring countries, as well as influential world powers such as the United States and the European Union, to work together to rebuild critical infrastructure, such as water and wastewater treatment plants and solid waste infrastructure. Moreover, to succeed, any long-term plan for the reconstruction of Gaza will need to prioritize the needs and perspectives of Palestinians themselves. Lesley Joseph is a research assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of South Carolina. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

A handful of major data breaches that occurred in 2024 have already come to light in the last few months (including the PowerSchool and Community Health Center incidents), the latest of which affected a major employment screening and background check service and compromised information from more than 3.3 million people. DISA Global Solutions provides background checks for more than 55,000 employers across the country, and its systems were compromised for more than two months last year. What happened with DISA?According to the company's filing with the Maine attorney general's office, hackers accessed DISA's system between Feb. 9, 2024 and April 22, 2024 (when the breach was discovered) and stole the data of 3,332,750 individuals In its letter notifying consumers of the breach, DISA did not provide specifics as to what was stolen, noting simply that the hackers "procured some information." However, an additional filing located by TechCrunch indicated that the breach included Social Security numbers, medical records, financial account information, credit and debit card numbers, and other government-issued documents. In conducting background checks, DISA collects a wide range of consumer data, including credit, education, and employment histories; driving records; drug tests; references from employers and landlords; and criminal and civil legal filings. What you can do if your data was stolenThe best you can do after a data breach is to pay attention to your personal accounts, follow basic security best practices—such as being especially vigilant with suspicious communication that might be a phishing attempt—and lock down as much as possible to prevent any further damage being done with your information. If you haven't already, you should take steps like freezing your credit and placing a fraud alert to prevent anyone from taking on debt in your name, as well as considering identity protection services that can notify you of anything suspicious. You can also set up protections for your SSN so no one can take on employment or file taxes fraudulently. As of Feb. 21, DISA is notifying consumers affected by the breach and offering a 12-month membership to Experian's IdentityWorks identity monitoring service. To enroll, go to the IdentityWorks website and enter the activation code in your notice. You must sign up by June 30, 2025. View the full article

Conciliatory statement comes after White House clash led to abandonment of plan to sign agreementView the full article

Across the city of Chengdu, China, the quiet but remarkable buildings of Liu Jiakun has slowly pierced through the dominant stereotype of bombastic Chinese architecture. Liu, who has just been named the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, has spent the past three decades carefully injecting pieces of socially conscious and transformative architecture into his hometown. Liu’s work includes subtle museums, historically informed preservation projects, and progressive urban projects that blur the edges of private space and public good. “In a world that tends to create endless dull peripheries, he has found a way to build places that are a building, infrastructure, landscape and public space at the same time,” writes Alejandro Aravena, chair of the Pritzker jury. Novartis (Shanghai) Block – C6 [Photo: courtesy of Arch-Exist] Liu, 69, has a unique background that informs his work. After studying architecture in the late 1970s and early ’80s, he worked at the state-owned Chengdu Architectural Design and Research Institute before volunteering to embed in remote Tibet where he developed a passion for meditation and writing. For a decade he left architecture to write novels and paint. In 1999 he returned to the field and established Jiakun Architects, when he was in his 40s. He now has more than 30 built projects to his name, many located in and around his hometown of Chengdu. In its citation for the 2025 Pritzker Prize, the jury commended Liu for his focus on the creating high-quality buildings for the lives of ordinary people. “While density appears to be a more sustainable solution for people to live together, the scarcity of space usually implies a poor quality of life,” the jury writes. “Liu Jiakun rethinks the fundamentals of density through cohabitation, crafting an intelligent solution that balances the opposite forces at play.” West Village [Photo: courtesy Chen Chen] This is especially evident in one of Liu’s standout projects, the West Village mixed use “urban complex,” which wraps the perimeter of a gigantic city block with a five-story building combining shops, offices, and community spaces. One full side of this megablock is made of a striking crisscross of steel ramps that serve to connect pedestrians and cyclists to the complex’s various spaces while also doubling as an inner city trail. A large courtyard of sports fields and gardens sits inside the built perimeter, with its towering ramps serving as a window frame for the 21-million-person city beyond. West Village [Photo: courtesy Qian Shen Photography] This socially minded work is continuing at an even larger scale in a forthcoming project. Liu’s firm is in the midst of creating a large park from a former steel factory in the city of Hangzhou. Opening once degraded land to the public while also celebrating its industrial heritage, the park strikes a soft balance between history and contemporary urban demands. Liu is just the second Pritzker Prize winner from China, after Wang Shu in 2012. No American has won the prize since 2005. View the full article

Deal involves sale of the bulk of ports owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison View the full article

Sycamore Partners is planning a three-way split of Walgreens Boots Alliance if a deal to take the struggling pharmacy chain private is reached, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Walgreens’s three businesses—U.S. retail pharmacy, Boots UK, and U.S. healthcare—will be separated and have distinct capital structures, according to the report. Sycamore and Walgreens both declined to comment on the report. Shares of the Deerfield, Illionois-based company rose 5% to $11.62 in early trading. The report “marks another twist in the potential go-private story” for Walgreens, Leerink analyst Michael Cherny said. Walgreens has reportedly been in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore since December, but a deal is yet to be reached. Media reports have also pointed to issues with financing for a buyout and discussion with Sycamore briefly falling out. The financing of the take-private deal is not expected to be an obstacle, according to the FT report. Walgreens’ executive chairman Stefano Pessina, who currently holds a 17% stake, is expected to maintain a significant share of the company, it added. —Bhanvi Satija and Sriparna Roy, Reuters View the full article

Ticketing platform Eventbrite has a new look—and an overhauled mobile app. The company just unveiled its first brand refresh and app redesign since 2019, signaling its increasing focus on surfacing event recommendations for its users. Coming less than a week after Eventbrite shared its Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings—posting a loss of $8.4 million for the quarter and loss of $15.6 million for the year—the new app is designed, in part, to help shore up the company’s 10% year-over-year decline in ticket sales by emphasizing event discovery. To do that, CEO and cofounder Julia Hartz tells Fast Company that Eventbrite’s strategy is cribbing somewhat from the music streaming world. “We believe that event discovery should be as intuitive as discovering music on Spotify,” she says. [Image: Eventbrite]The redesign and strategy shift is also informed by Eventbrite’s consumer research, which found users between 18 and 34 increasingly driven to attend live events—which Hartz calls “fourth spaces”—by a desire to bring their online interests into the real world—from podcasts to cooking and crafting. “We’re highlighting that niche is the new mass, especially for Gen Z and live experiences,” she says. Driving DiscoveryPutting a new app at the center of its strategy is how Eventbrite wants to capitalize on a highly engaged subset of users. Some 10% of the company’s 90 million monthly active users use the app, and that number is increasing at about 17% year over year. In a move pulled straight from streaming, Eventbrite’s Discover tab offers users recommendations based on past purchases. The new app also introduces It List—guides to events in 12 markets curated by more than 25 people Eventbrite calls “cultural creators.” In Chicago, for example, author Rebecca Makkai offers a guide to social art and literature events, and in Toronto, DJ Hangaëlle gives users a guide to the city’s nightlife. Users are able to save events they’re interested to come back to later, with a dedicated “Saved” tab in the app. [Image: Eventbrite]“Curated discovery is a game-changer” Hartz says, noting that early tests found that users engaging with It Lists are twice as likely to buy a ticket. “That’s not a new concept, but we bring it to life in this new experience. We know a lot about consumers, what they want to do, and how to drive action from intent, which is a big leap when you’re thinking about buying tickets to an event.” The new app also builds in a social function, allowing users to find and follow friends and see what events they may be attending. Hartz teases more features down the line, including user-generated It Lists. “[That would be] another way of connecting with your digital community and getting your friends to want to go out and experience real life with you,” she says. [Image: Eventbrite]Giving organizers a boostHartz’s comparison to the Spotify experience in the new app also extends to Eventbrite’s tools that help hosts promote their upcoming events. Since 2022, Eventbrite Ads has been a way for event planners to boost visibility of a listing—not unlike Spotify’s Discover Mode, which artists use to be promoted into a listener’s autoplay mix. [Image: Eventbrite]The ads program, which was introduced in 2022, has been a solid growth driver for the company, posting year-over-year revenue increases of 34% in Q4 and 83% for the full year. Hartz told investors last week that events using the ads tool sold four times more tickets than events that didn’t. She says that’s in part because of how engaged its app users are versus users on social media. [Image: Eventbrite]“While you’re getting a mass audience on Instagram, you’re getting a super high-intent audience on Eventbrite,” she says, noting that app users are two and half times more active in ticket sales than other users. That’s helped incentivize bringing the ads program into the redesigned app. “We’re expanding Ads placements to be in heavily trafficked places like It Lists and and category-specific landing pages,” Hartz says. We’re making it possible for creators to partake in that high-intent experience.” [Image: Eventbrite]Cornering the ‘fourth space’In surveying the swath of Gen Z and millennials aged 18 to 34, Hartz says Eventbrite is seeing the long tail of pandemic-fueled isolation start to evolve into renewed interest in IRL experiences—but for increasingly niche interests cultivated online. Eventbrite found three-quarters of the people it surveyed planned to spend more money on live events in the next six months. With home, work, and public spaces like parks and cafes constituting the first, second, and third spaces, Hartz sees these events—among them cosplay speed dating, run clubs, and culinary experiences—as a “fourth space.” [Image: Eventbrite]“There’s a mashup of niche interests coming together in really creative ways offline,” she says. “We think of ourselves as the infrastructure for fourth spaces.” When talking about Eventbrite’s focus on surfacing new events for niche audiences, Hartz sounds more like the head of a streamer than a ticketing platform. It’s an ambitious framing, but it’s not an accident. “We’re not ticketing large concerts and arenas and stadiums—we’re ticketing everything else that isn’t a backyard barbecue or birthday party,” she says. “Because of that, I think of Eventbrite’s content as a new type of media—content brought to life in tiny and massive ways. I think you could say that our competition is staying home and sitting on the couch.” View the full article

Despite government vow to listen to business, changes to be published on Tuesday will favour employeesView the full article

Tariffs, the employment pool and requirements to tap financing are potential roadblocks that need to be addressed in order to increase new builds. View the full article

Almost half of Americans have considered or plan to move abroad to improve their happiness, according to a Harris poll published today. Specifically, the poll found that four in 10 Americans have at least thought about leaving the country within the next few years. And among Gen Z and millennials, almost one in five respondents reported “seriously considering” an imminent move. The results show that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the “American Dream” as the cost of essentials like rent, healthcare, and education continues to rise. Here are three main takeaways from the poll: Home ownership and cost of living are top of mind Per the new poll, 68% of Americans are in agreement about two key statements: “These days I feel like I am surviving instead of thriving,” and “Homeownership is no longer attainable for most American citizens.” Of those who said that they’d consider moving out of the U.S., 49% reported cost of living as their primary consideration. Dissatisfaction with the current political leadership ranked as the second highest concern. Sentiments around cost of living revealed in this poll are backed up by several recent reports. In early February, an update from the Labor Department showed that the consumer price index—an inflation barometer that considers essential costs like gas, groceries, and cars—was up 3.3% year-over-year, compared to the previous January. For the past six months, inflation rates have hovered above the Fed’s 2% target. Meanwhile, Zillow’s most recent Home Value Index found that, “As elevated mortgage rates dampen demand for home purchases, many potential buyers are staying renters for longer,” predicting a 3.7% rise in single-family rents for 2025. The current economic reality can be even more disheartening for families: Based on a recent analysis by the National Women’s Law Center, the average family would need to earn at least $180,000 annually in 2025 to comfortably afford the national cost of infant care. Who is more likely to be eyeing the exit? According to the new Harris Poll, these converging economic factors are more likely to push away younger, non-white, and LGBTQ+ Americans. While only 25% of Gen X and 26% of baby boomers said they’d considered moving abroad, 63% of Gen Zers and 52% of millennials said the same, respectively. Additionally, LGBTQIA+, Hispanic, and Black respondents were all more likely to consider moving. Dual citizenship is attractive for young Americans Younger Americans also expressed a greater desire than their older counterparts to obtain dual citizenship, with 66% of Gen Zers and millennials affirming that they were at least somewhat interested in pursuing it for travel freedom, economic opportunities, and better access to public services. The top 10 countries that Americans would consider moving to, in order, are as follows: Canada The U.K. Australia France Italy Japan Mexico Spain Germany New Zealand View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Two weeks ago, there was a blanket of snow across most of the country. That melted into what feels like an early spring, with occasionally clear days and warm(ish) weather. The irises and tulips have begun to emerge in some areas, the surest sign that planting season is around the corner. This is the time to get organized and get ready, because by the time we talk again in April, we will be in it. Start garden and lawn cleanup in MarchNow is the time to get out there and start your spring clean up. You don’t want to get rid of the leaves—there are still insects slumbering, and they will be until spring temperatures hit. But you can gently rake them into beds and clear your lawn. Grab your pruners and get rid of the dead wood you see around you on shrubs. If you didn’t hit your berry canes before now, this is your last chance to clear away the dead wood. Your blueberries are ready to get a good structural pruning, too. Give your large shrubs and small trees a final pruning; we’re at the tail end of when it’s acceptable to do so. For trees, remove branches aimed inward, or those that cross another branch. You want to create airflow. The same is true for your shrubs: If you’ve allowed your hydrangeas and lilacs to become woody, now is a good time to lighten them up by removing interior branches and those that aim inward, cross other branches, or are too close to the house. Clean up your water features like ponds and bubblers. They might have algae or too much nitrogen from leaves. Consider mosquito dunks to prevent a problem later this summer. Empty your bird boxes; birds don’t like a used space. Do a deep clean of all your bird feeders, so you’re not spreading disease amongst the local bird population, particularly this year given the status of the bird flu. While I am an ecolawn convert, it’s time to revive the green space, whether it’s clover or grass. Uncover it, and consider aerating it with an aerator, which you can rent or borrow. Then fertilize the lawn, and as soon as it’s warm enough, overseed it. For grass seed, you need 50 degree ground temps; for clovers, you need 40 degrees. Divide tubers and plan your bulbsNow that your irises and other tubers should be sending up small shoots, you can see precisely where they are and, if necessary, break them up. Tubers (ginger root is a tuber, and it looks exactly like iris tubers and others) are very hard to kill. You can dig them up and break them apart, or take a spade to them (shove it through the tuber to divide it). I have been known to take a serrated bread knife into the garden, shove it into the dirt and saw tubers apart but a good serrated hori hori will do the job, too. Even a small piece can be replanted. You should really never need to buy more irises; you have the ability to propagate as many as you need. With the exception of a few flowers like ranunculus, it’s too late to plant most fall-planting/spring-flowering bulbs, like tulips. But consider that when you plant tulips in fall, you have no idea what your garden looks like in spring. During this time of year, I take pictures every week of most of my yard, and try to pay attention to where I need more bulbs, which kinds of bulbs, what colors, etc. I take a lot of notes that I can reference in fall when I order bulbs and plant. You can plant ranunculus, which is a fall bulb, but is very forgiving on early spring planting. "Ranuncs," as they’re referred to by gardeners, are like small peonies and come in fantastic colors. Their tiny spider-like corms (like bulbs) are easy to plant; they don’t need a lot of depth, and since you’re planting them now, you can put them exactly where you need them to bloom. Soak them in room temperature water over night before planting, and then place them with the roots facing down. Prep the garden bedsThere are lots of ways we can get garden beds ready for spring if they’re not in use with your winter garden. First, clean up the beds. Chop all your dead crops down, but leave the roots in place to compost if you can. Cleaning up the top of beds, whether that’s leaves or branches, will mean less food for slugs and snails, since this is when you’re most likely to catch them before they repopulate. Go ham on slug traps right now. They don’t need to be complicated—shallow dishes of beer work really well. Get rid of the weeds, too, now, before they multiply. It will only get worse from here on out. Make sure you’re pulling them out entirely, no matter how small they are. You don’t have to till up your entire bed; in fact, many people believe doing so only brings weed seeds to the surface. You can use a broadfork to break up the soil just enough to allow your plants to grow healthy roots, without destroying the structures that have been established in the soil already, like healthy mycorrhizae. Speaking of which, you can add mycorrhizae to your beds to help create better soil health and structure, and now would be a good time to do so. If you’ve never tested your soil, do it now. Talk to your local nursery, extension office, or farm store about testing. You collect a little dirt, send it off, and they’ll let you know what your soil needs. Realistically, the most effective thing you can do in your garden is have really healthy soil with as few weeds as possible. Once the beds are clean and ready, consider two additional tasks. First: mulch. Mulch is great for stopping weeds, but it also protects plant roots to keep them moist and insulted from the weather. You can also consider getting low tunnels up at this point so you can get an early start on the season. Plant (or prune) rosesIf you have established roses, it’s pruning time. If you don’t, we’ve just started rose-planting season, and bareroot roses from all the big rose houses like David Austin are hitting nurseries now. Pay attention to the nursery instructions for planting bareroot roses: These frilly friends need fertilizer, good planting hole prep, and to be planted correctly in order to thrive. Fertilize these shrubs Camellias are about to bloom (mine has already started), and other large shrubs like azaleas and rhododendrons aren’t far behind. They benefit from ericaceous fertilizer, and now’s the time to dress them with it. You can pick up this acidic fertilizer at the local nursery. Plant spring crops as soon as the ground is workableIt's hard to believe the time is here, but if the nursery has spring crops, you can start adding them to your garden. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, lettuce and radicchio is good to go in once the hard frost risk has passed. Pea seeds can go in, and sweet peas can get planted. I've seen multiple friends sketching out their summer garden the last week. It may still be chilly outside, but the season is soon upon us. Get outside and start digging; it'll be here in no time. View the full article

Traders added to bets on interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve amid concern about the impact of US trade tariffs on global economic growth. View the full article

iOS users will find a handful of new emojis with an update to the 18.4 beta, including a "Face with Bags Under Eyes," which represents us all right now. The new characters were recommended for release in September 2024 with Unicode Emoji 16.0, though it typically takes designers for Apple (as well as Google, Samsung, and others) to interpret and create their versions of the new emojis and push them to users. The last round of characters rolled out with the iOS 17.4 update in March 2024 and included "Head Shaking Horizontally" and "Head Shaking Vertically," as well as a phoenix, lime, brown mushroom, and broken chain. What new emojis are coming to iPhone?These are the new emojis launching with iOS 18.4: Bags under eyes Fingerprint Leafless tree Root vegetable Harp Shovel Splatter On top of the standard emojis, some users can create any emoji they want using Apple Intelligence's Genmoji feature, which launched in beta with iOS 18.2 for iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 16 series. To make an AI-generated emoji, switch to the emoji keyboard from any text field, tap the emoji, and enter the prompt for what you want to create. The next round of new emojis will come with Unicode 17, which is expected sometime in the fall and will make its way to Apple OS around this time in 2026. The proposed characters include hairy creature, distorted face, fight cloud, apple core, orca, trombone, landslide, and treasure chest as well as skin tone variations for several existing emoji. View the full article

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Like clockwork, every year, the U.S. housing market experiences a seasonal swing. It happens in both good years and bad. And while the seasonal trend may vary slightly by market (for example, snowbird markets), it remains fairly consistent across most housing markets. Here are three core components of the U.S. housing market’s seasonal effect—and what it means for buyers and sellers. 1. Existing home sales begin to rise heading into spring Seasonally speaking, U.S. existing home sales typically bottom out in January, then begin to rise month-over-month until peaking around June. That’s true even in an affordability constrained housing market, such as the current market. This trend is partly driven by families with children who prefer to buy in the spring so they can move and settle in before the next school year begins. Another factor is that some buyers wait for their tax refunds in early spring, using them to help with down payments and closing costs. In Northern and Mountain West markets, the rise in sales is also boosted by the fact that people waited for warmer weather before moving. Additionally, many home sellers are aware of the seasonal trend and choose to list their homes in spring to attract the largest pool of buyers, which boosts inventory, increases choices, and drives up transaction volume. (More on that below.) 2. New listings rise in the spring Knowing that many homebuyers begin their home searches in early spring, it’s also when many existing home sellers enter the market. On a seasonal level, new U.S. house listings typically bottom out in December, then begin to rise month-over-month until peaking around May. The annual upswing for new U.S. listings usually begins one month before the annual upswing in U.S. existing home sales. 3. U.S. home prices see the most upward pressure in the spring U.S. home prices experience the most upward seasonal pressure between March and July and the most downward pressure between September and January. As shown in the chart above, even during the home price crash from late 2006 to early 2012, U.S. home prices remained fairly steady during the spring months—only to resume plunging later in the year once the housing market moved into the seasonally soft fall window. In appreciating housing markets (like most of the Midwest and Northeast right now), homebuyers typically face higher prices if they wait later into the spring season. In contrast, in correcting housing markets (like pockets of Southwest Florida right now), buyers are often rewarded for waiting until the seasonal slowdown later in the year (when prices dip further) to make their purchase. View the full article

Tesla’s sales of its China-made electric vehicles dropped 49.2% in February from a year earlier to 30,688 cars, the lowest since August 2022, as the U.S. automaker faces pressure from Chinese rivals in a relentless smart EV price war. Tesla, which makes its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China, sold 93,926 Chinese-made vehicles worldwide in the first two months, down 28.7% year-on-year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). January-February sales were distorted by the Lunar New Year holiday shifting from February last year to late January this year and due to a partial suspension of Model Y production for upgrade work. Still, Chinese rival BYD, with its Dynasty and Ocean series of EVs and plug-in hybrids, recorded a 90.4% increase in passenger vehicle sales to 614,679 units last month. BYD deepened a three-year-old price war in the world’s largest auto market last month with the launch of smart EVs — EVs equipped with advanced driving-assistance systems — starting at below $10,000. That prompted peers including Leapmotor and Geely to follow suit with affordable smart EV rollouts. Both Tesla models made in China are smart EVs. Tesla also exports its China-made EVs to markets including Europe, where sales plunged 45% in January. To increase the appeal of its aging models, Tesla made a long-awaited update to its autopilot software in China to enable city navigation in late February. It also kicked off deliveries of the revamped Model Y in its second-largest market. Model Y was the best-selling car in China itself in 2023 and 2024, although Chinese rivals have launched at least six models in the past year to take on Model Y. Tesla still benefits from a brand halo in China but analysts have said Xiaomi’s YU7 crossover to be launched later this year would be the strongest rival. Sales of the Onvo L60, which Nio launched in April to compete with Model Y and Toyota’s RAV4, fell to 4,049 units in February. Nio Chief Executive William Li expects the model will reach monthly deliveries of 20,000 units in March, which he is counting on to improve Nio’s profitability. —Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh, Reuters View the full article

If you have any vegetable products in your kitchen, you’ll want to be aware of the latest recall posted on the website of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The recall involves numerous vegetable products and fears that they could be a breeding ground for Clostridium botulinum bacterium, which can produce the deadly botulinum toxin. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On March 3, the FDA posted the notice of a voluntary recall from AKT Trading Inc. of Torrance, California. The recall was initiated after the company discovered that some of the prepared vegetable products manufactured by Choshiya Honten Co., Ltd had the potential to harbor the Clostridium botulinum bacterium. That bacterium can produce a toxin called botulinum, which can lead to a botulism infection in a person who consumes it. The reason the recalled products have the potential to harbor the potentially deadly bacterium is because the required “Keep Refrigerated” statement was left off the packaging. If the vegetables are not refrigerated, it could enable the bacterium to grow. Which products are affected? According to the FDA notice, the following products with the brand name “Japanese Pickles,” packaged in 1 lb plastic bags, are included in the recall: SHIBA ZUKE PREPARED MIX VEGETABLES, JAN CODE (UPC): 4582207535128, Expiration date: 8/27/2025 AOKAPPA ZUKE PREPARED MIX VEGETABLES, JAN CODE (UPC): 4582207535135, Expiration Date: 5/14/2025 FUKUSHIN ZUKE PREPARED MIX VEGETABLES, JAN CODE (UPC): 4582207535142, Expiration date: 7/9/2025, 5/31/2025 SOFT TSUBOZUKE PREPARED MIX VEGETABLES, JAN CODE (UPC): 4582207535159, Expiration Date: 7/29/2025 RAKKYO ZUKE PREPARED VEGETABLES, JAN CODE (UPC): 4983673526021, Expiration Date: 8/1/2025, 7/1/2025 Additionally, the following product is also included in the recall: Brand name: CHOSHIYA Product name: ABURA-ITAME ZHASAI PREPARED SICHUAN VEGETABLE Container: 8.8oz. plastic bag JAN CODE (UPC): 4983673527325 Expiration date: 4/3/2025, 2/25/2025 The products were distributed at Tokyo Central / Marukai stores in California. The full details of the recalled products can be found here. This recall follows an earlier recall of prepared bamboo shoots. The details of that earlier recall can be found here. What is botulism? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), botulism is a rare but serious disease. The condition is caused by a toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum and other related bacteria. There are five types of botulism, including foodborne botulism, and all are medical emergencies. Botulism occurs when the toxin attacks the body’s nerves. This can lead to a number of issues, including muscle paralysis and difficulty breathing. It can even cause death. The CDC says that any form of botulism is a medical emergency that necessitates an immediate visit to your doctor or emergency room. What are the symptoms of botulism? Symptoms can vary depending on what type of botulism a person has. The CDC says symptoms related to all forms of botulism may include: Difficulty swallowing Muscle weakness Double vision Drooping eyelids Blurry vision Slurred speech Difficulty breathing Difficulty moving the eyes Foodborne botulism symptoms may also include: Vomiting Nausea Stomach pain Diarrhea And symptoms of botulism in an infant may also include: Constipation Poor feeding Drooping eyelids Pupils that are slow to react to light Face showing less expression than usual Weak cry that sounds different than usual What do I do if I have the recalled products? Do not consume them. Instead, the recalled products should be discarded or returned to their place of purchase for a refund. Full details of the recall can be found here. Consumers who have more questions can contact AKT Trading Inc. at 310-715-2174 or email the company at info@aktusa.com. View the full article